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Michael Jackson's Official Sales: A Detailed Look!

smooth_criminal05

smooth_criminal05

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Michael Jackson: The Numbers
Exclusive Look Into The Lifetime Sales Of The King Of Pop

Source: Sony Music USA, Universal Music

As promised here are the total numbers internationally, last updated July 31st 2010. Numbers will include Jackson 5 sales but will be separated accordingly so readers can easily see MJ's solo sales plus Jackson 5 sales. Also, I will break it down with album sales, download/single sales, plus I will include ALL DVD/VHS and other forms of musical release. Remember, these are the actual recorded sales numbers by both Sony and Universal and are not inflated in anyway. There are some sales from certain countries that are very hard to track, even by Sony. So these numbers are about as close as anyone is going to get. As you can see, the initial 750,000,000 units quoted by MJ was not far off. This does not include any pirated, illegally downloaded, or fan made albums, nor does it include any unofficial releases.

THE SALES:

Jackson 5/The Jacksons

ALBUM SALES:
Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5: 6,200,000
ABC: 7,500,000
Third Album: 7,150,000
Christmas Album: 4,200,000
Maybe Tomorrow: 3,900,000
Goin' Back To Indiana: 3,100,000
Greatest Hits: 6,500,000
Lookin' Through The Windows: 4,050,000
Skywriter: 3,200,000
The Jackson 5 In Japan: 1,300,000
Get It Together: 2,900,000
Dancing Machine: 3,000,000
Moving Violation: 2,200,000
The Jacksons: 6,000,000
Goin' Places: 800,000
Destiny: 3,500,000
Triumph: 3,400,000
The Jacksons Live: 2,800,000
Victory: 8,500,000
2300 Jackson St: 750,000
Jackson 5 The Ultimate Collection: 5,500,000
Jackson 5 Gold: 3,500,000
Anthology: 2,800,000
Ultimate Christmas Collection: 1,900,000
20th Century Masters: 3,000,000
Michael Jackson The Motown Years: 1,050,000
J is For Jackson 5: 700,000
Michael Jackson The Remix Suite: 1,600,000
Jackson 5 Greatest Hits: 900,000
Other: 10,800,000

Digital Downloads: 12,800,000
DVD/VHS SALES: 2,600,000
Ringtones: 1,600,000

Total Unit Sales: 129,700,000


--
Michael Jackson SOLO Album Sales:

Got To Be There: 6,000,000
Ben: 6,500,000
Music & Me: 4,800,000
Forever Michael: 4,900,000
Off The Wall: 22,100,000
Thriller: 69,800,000
Bad: 36,100,000
Dangerous: 35,200,000
HIStory: 20,900,000 (41.8 million units)
Blood On The Dance Floor: 7,000,000
20th Century Masters: 2,500,000
Invincible: 13,300,000
Number Ones: 11,900,000
The Ultimate Collection: 1,020,000 (6 million units)
The Essential: 8,900,000 (17.8 million units)
Visionary: 5,000,000 (unit sales)
King Of Pop: 6,000,000
Hello World The Motown Solo Collection: 1,020,000
Michael Jackson The Stripped Mixes: 1,350,000
The Definitive Collection: 1,200,000
This Is It: 5,200,000
Other: 22,000,000

Total Albums: 292,690,000 or 327,290,000 if you include multiple disc albums as separate unit sales


--
Singles/Digital Downloads:

Motown/Universal Albums: 27,000,000
Off The Wall: 22,000,000
Thriller: 41,500,000
Bad: 32,800,000
Dangerous: 30,300,000
HIStory: 26,000,000
BOTDF: 2,300,000
Invincible: 6,800,000
Other: 15,000,000

Total Singles/Digital Downloads: 203,700,000


--
VHS/DVD's:

The Making Of MJ's Thriller: 9,500,000
Moonwalker: 3,500,000
Ghosts: 300,000
Number Ones: 5,600,000
The One: 1,050,000
Dangerous The Short Films: 2,500,000
Live In Bucharest: 2,500,000
This Is It: 11,200,000
Other: 4,000,000

Total VHS/DVD Sales: 40,150,000
*this number is set to jump over the next decade as Sony unleashes many new DVD projects including the first this November.


--
Music Video Sales:

I-Tunes: 9,500,000
Other Sources: 6,000,000

Total Music Video Sales: 15,500,000

--
Ringtones:

Total Global Ringtone Sales: 6,500,000



Total SOLO Michael Jackson Unit Sales: 593,140,000
Total Michael Jackson Unit Sales (J5 Included): 722,840,000


Keep this number in mind as we move closer to the new album and the 9 new releases slated before the end of 2017. This number will surely grow throughout the years.
__________________
 
Last edited:
Thank you soooo Much Smooth for the update i appreciate it ans wow mj acheived so much and life and even after , very proud of you Mr. Jackson
 
Thanks a lot for posting, BAD overtook Dangerous :eek: didn't see that coming
so the 750 000 000 number wasn't that inflated then :D

over the next decade MJ is surely going to be suceeding Elvis and The Beetles in sales, its just a matter of time :yes:

Oh and wheres Dangerous: The Short Films? Is that included in others?
 
*I updated the numbers, I left out Dangerous the Short Films in the DVD section, the list I had was very long and my eyes skipped right over it. HIStory Greatest Hits On Film is included in the other. Thanks for pointing that out Raz2911
 
Thank you very much for all this great information Smooth :D
 
Wow, thank you so much, I've been wondering about this for a long time :) I never knew Bad and Dangerous sold so much, I always thought they were around the 30 million mark. I never knew Victory was the best selling J5/Jacksons album either, I figured it would be their earlier stuff. But these numbers are impressive indeed :) Even if MJ is not the most selling artist, he surely has to be the best selling one? Have Elvis or the Beatles had 4 albums (units) that sold 35 million+? Which leads me to my next question, does anyone know where to find reliable data on Elvis and Beatles record sales? Cause the 1 billion mark seems a bit inflated to me (particularly for Elvis), I'd like to know once and for all who the best selling solo artist in history is :)

Also: is it true that MJ is in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the most successful artist in history? I keep reading this, but I'm confused because if Elvis or the Beatles sold more then surely they must take that place, no? How do they measure this :scratch:
 
Thanks SC 05. Very impressive numbers. Michael is truly one of the very few recording artists in history who achieved both commercial and critical success.

Every one of Michael's studio album since Off The Wall passed the 10 million mark. Who else can claim that each one of his/her studio album released sold more than 10 million?
 
Great work Smothcriminal05. This is a GREAT source for sales info. Thank you so much for this. I've been waiting a long time for someone to give an accurate breakdown of all this info. This is great. Now we need to get this list out there.
 
I also noticed you missed the Release of the 1st disk to History in 2001, Greatest Hits: HIStory, Volume I.
 
Wait, is this real?
"Singles/Digital Downloads:

Motown/Universal Albums: 27,000,000
Off The Wall: 22,000,000
Thriller: 41,500,000
Bad: 32,800,000
Dangerous: 30,300,000
HIStory: 26,000,000
BOTDF: 2,300,000
Invincible: 6,800,000
Other: 15,000,000

Total Singles/Digital Downloads: 203,700,000"

Thriller sold 41 million times in downloads?? Plus almost 70 million physical albums? So it actually sold 110 million times (in 2006 it was claimed it had sold 106 million albums).
But are you sure about these downloads? I mean for an album, that was published a long, long time before the downloading era even began, these are hugeastic numbers! :bugeyed

Plus, I would love to know about Elvis and the Beatles as well!

Plus plus: let us not count Michael albums/units together with JU% and TJ units when comparing with The Beatles for example. If they use the same tactic, they can just as easily unite the sales of the group together with the sales of Paul MacCartney and Michael wouldn't ever be able to beat that!
 
Firstly, Michael didn't firsthand claim to sell 750million records. That came from Raymone Bain and then Guinness World Records. It's telling that Guinness never did print 750million records sold despite them confirming they got the figures from SONY/Epic, RIAA and the IFP. Guinness would state in their book that Michael's management told them the 750million figure...this was Raymone at the time and it was for records.

Some of the figures included in this have been inflated here. Music video, DVD or Blu-Ray sales don't add to record sales. 750 million was always stated as records rather than units.

UKMIX forum with MJDangerous and Nelson have pretty comprehensive sales stats for several countries also, so sales would certainly be more accurate around 450-490mill sold.

And still this comes from the guy who CLAIMS to have inside info yet has consistently been shown to be wrong...time and time again. Reputations are and should be built on consistency - not the other way round.

Sources should include INDEPENDENT sources also to support the figures. Ones with an interest at stake will always go north of any actual figure.

However you look at it, Michael Jackson remains the best selling solo artist in life and now in death.
 
:accordian::dance_party::doublebass::violin: :victory: :thanks_sign::hacker:

And spread this all over the world.... and WIKIpedia!!!
 
BTW, Visionary consists of all the MJs singles, so.... can we count all the sigles altogether?
5 mill. x XY singles = ???
 
Invincible: 13,300,000
Number Ones: 11,900,000

I was a bit shocked by this :no:

It may not be true it's just this small difference in sales.... Invincible SHOULD be higher ! ! ! ! ! ! !
 
Billie Jean 78 said:
Wait, is this real?
"Singles/Digital Downloads:

Motown/Universal Albums: 27,000,000
Off The Wall: 22,000,000
Thriller: 41,500,000
Bad: 32,800,000
Dangerous: 30,300,000
HIStory: 26,000,000
BOTDF: 2,300,000
Invincible: 6,800,000
Other: 15,000,000

Total Singles/Digital Downloads: 203,700,000"

Thriller sold 41 million times in downloads?? Plus almost 70 million physical albums? So it actually sold 110 million times (in 2006 it was claimed it had sold 106 million albums).
But are you sure about these downloads? I mean for an album, that was published a long, long time before the downloading era even began, these are hugeastic numbers! :bugeyed

Plus, I would love to know about Elvis and the Beatles as well!

Plus plus: let us not count Michael albums/units together with JU% and TJ units when comparing with The Beatles for example. If they use the same tactic, they can just as easily unite the sales of the group together with the sales of Paul MacCartney and Michael wouldn't ever be able to beat that!
Click to expand...

When I say "Thriller" I meant all the songs off Thriller. If you take single sales for all 7 singles off the album and add that onto all digital downloads ever purchased on the Internet from the Thriller album you get a combined total of 41.5 million units sold for the Thriller ALBUM. Hopefully you understand this better now.
 
Pompous Git said:
Firstly, Michael didn't firsthand claim to sell 750million records. That came from Raymone Bain and then Guinness World Records. It's telling that Guinness never did print 750million records sold despite them confirming they got the figures from SONY/Epic, RIAA and the IFP. Guinness would state in their book that Michael's management told them the 750million figure...this was Raymone at the time and it was for records.

Some of the figures included in this have been inflated here. Music video, DVD or Blu-Ray sales don't add to record sales. 750 million was always stated as records rather than units.

UKMIX forum with MJDangerous and Nelson have pretty comprehensive sales stats for several countries also, so sales would certainly be more accurate around 450-490mill sold.

And still this comes from the guy who CLAIMS to have inside info yet has consistently been shown to be wrong...time and time again. Reputations are and should be built on consistency - not the other way round.

Sources should include INDEPENDENT sources also to support the figures. Ones with an interest at stake will always go north of any actual figure.

However you look at it, Michael Jackson remains the best selling solo artist in life and now in death.
Click to expand...

Nothing here has been inflated, much of the numbers have been verified by chart companies around the world but most of these organizations are very slow at recognizing sales especially since the huge amount of MJ albums sold in 2009 and into 2010. The reality is, there will never be an independent source that can calculate sales. Sony knows how many units they have shipped around the world, so they are the most accurate source we have. And yes DVD's and VHS's that are MUSIC related do indeed count for unit sales. It's all a part of the musical experience MJ has offered the public. And finally, the 750 million reference would be impossible to back up if you were to only include albums. The sales just aren't there.
 
smooth_criminal05 said:
When I say "Thriller" I meant all the songs off Thriller. If you take single sales for all 7 singles off the album and add that onto all digital downloads ever purchased on the Internet from the Thriller album you get a combined total of 41.5 million units sold for the Thriller ALBUM. Hopefully you understand this better now.
Click to expand...

I do indeed, thanx.
 
smooth_criminal05 said:
Nothing here has been inflated, much of the numbers have been verified by chart companies around the world but most of these organizations are very slow at recognizing sales especially since the huge amount of MJ albums sold in 2009 and into 2010. The reality is, there will never be an independent source that can calculate sales. Sony knows how many units they have shipped around the world, so they are the most accurate source we have. And yes DVD's and VHS's that are MUSIC related do indeed count for unit sales. It's all a part of the musical experience MJ has offered the public. And finally, the 750 million reference would be impossible to back up if you were to only include albums. The sales just aren't there.
Click to expand...

What would you say about the number of shipped records, do you have any information from Sony?
 
smooth_criminal05 said:
Nothing here has been inflated, much of the numbers have been verified by chart companies around the world but most of these organizations are very slow at recognizing sales especially since the huge amount of MJ albums sold in 2009 and into 2010. The reality is, there will never be an independent source that can calculate sales. Sony knows how many units they have shipped around the world, so they are the most accurate source we have. And yes DVD's and VHS's that are MUSIC related do indeed count for unit sales. It's all a part of the musical experience MJ has offered the public. And finally, the 750 million reference would be impossible to back up if you were to only include albums. The sales just aren't there.
Click to expand...

Is there not something about triple posting after yourself?

No, the only 'source' here is yourself. Where's the actual source link or evidence? You've inflated sales of some of the stuff here.

BTW, shipments around the world are not the same as actual, physical sales. I said "records" - that's not just albums and includes singles. 750million records means albums and singles,but MJ didn't sell that figure - videos/DVDs aren't part of this. Videos/DVDs are not RECORDS - they are music products, yes, but they don't go towards total albums and singles sold.

Independent sources would be those not affiliated with Sony such as RIAA, IFP and the retail market industry,e.g. HMV. Sony and all labels are basically interested in how many albums they can ship out while stores are interested in how many they can actually sell. The two are not the same.

Nelson and MJDangerous are more credible than yourself, especially when you've been inconsistent several times over the last few months about the new album. Those guys have sales info for lots of artists as well - all from independent sources too.
 
Pompous Git said:
Is there not something about triple posting after yourself?

No, the only 'source' here is yourself. Where's the actual source link or evidence? You've inflated sales of some of the stuff here.

BTW, shipments around the world are not the same as actual, physical sales. I said "records" - that's not just albums and includes singles. 750million records means albums and singles,but MJ didn't sell that figure - videos/DVDs aren't part of this. Videos/DVDs are not RECORDS - they are music products, yes, but they don't go towards total albums and singles sold.

Independent sources would be those not affiliated with Sony such as RIAA, IFP and the retail market industry,e.g. HMV. Sony and all labels are basically interested in how many albums they can ship out while stores are interested in how many they can actually sell. The two are not the same.

Nelson and MJDangerous are more credible than yourself, especially when you've been inconsistent several times over the last few months about the new album. Those guys have sales info for lots of artists as well - all from independent sources too.
Click to expand...


I speak with MJDangerous from time to time, the data we present eachother usually corresponds. It seems like you are trying to attack me. Regardless, if you don't believe the numbers...don't read it. The reality is...Sony knows how many albums they ship and they know how many have sold. In some situations, Sony has to create a realistic estimate but if your looking for an exact number you won't find it.
 
smooth_criminal05 said:
The Ultimate Collection: 1,020,000 (6 million units)

Visionary: 5,000,000

Hello World The Motown Solo Collection: 1,020,000
Click to expand...
All these 'compilations' mentioned above are very expensive & hard to find in stores...


The same goes for The Definitive Collection & 20th Century Masters- both quite hard to find in stores too & btw, they are released by Motown...
 
Could we not bring the fights and arguments from the new album thread to other threads in this forum?

SC 05 is posting on a totally different topic here. The accuracy of his posts related to the new album is not relavant in this topic. It's totally not fair to bash SC 05 on everyting he posts.

As always, his posts are for your information only. He doesn't force you to believe every single one of his words. If you don't believe in Sony's info, fine, go reasearch the sales info from the "so-called" independent sources. But, what he has to gain to inflate Michael's sales record?

I personally appreciate his time for putting this information together.
 
Billie Jean 78 said:
Plus plus: let us not count Michael albums/units together with JU% and TJ units when comparing with The Beatles for example. If they use the same tactic, they can just as easily unite the sales of the group together with the sales of Paul MacCartney and Michael wouldn't ever be able to beat that!
Click to expand...

Actually, I think it makes sense to include the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons sales into consideration. J5 and the Jacksons are part of his legacy. Moreover, Michael MADE the J5 and the Jacksons. He was the reason the group was successful (no offense to the brothers). But, Michael Jackson was the focal point. J5 and the Jacksons wouldn't be where they were without Michael.

However, in the Beatles case, none of the four members soley made the Beatles. The group synergy was very different. The four members together made the magic. As a matter of fact, neither McCartney nor Lennon enjoyed the kind of success Michael enjoyed after going solo.

Since we are talking about record sales here, if we just look at the sales of McCartney's solo records, his sales are nowhere near the sales of the Beatles.
 
If somebody believes a poster to be inaccurate (and perhaps lying) about 1 topic then he or she is entitled to assume the poster could be lying in another. However, I agree that attacking them here for the posts in the album thread is wrong.

Now on topic.

We should take all sales figures with some caution as there has never been an accurate way to track them all. While the record company perhaps has access to all the best data regarding the shipments it has made over the years and the revenue generated through legal download, all Sales and shipments figures publically available from any record company will be inflated. Understandably they want to promote their artist in the most positive way possible and making them appear more successful than they are is the best way to do it.
For example, it is a commonly held opinion that Elvis and The Beatles sold in excess of 1 billion albums. In fact neither acts have achieved that feat, though it may have been possible for them to sell 1billion 'units'. Often the media confuse units with albums and the record labels know this well.

So the question for Smooth is:

Is this data something Sony are happy to share with the public (e.g. obtained from the marketing dept), or are these figures from some internal research compiled by somebody who is in a position to obtain the correct, factual information independently? This is a very important question.
 
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